WARNING: Are you a follow of Christ? If so, this post may cause your heart to hurt more than it currently does regarding reaching others for Christ. Pressure is not a bad thing. Pressure causes the pistons in our automobiles to push us wherever we want to go. We know Christ wants us to go everywhere for Him with the glorious gospel. Amen?
We know we should tell others about Christ, and when we don’t it hurts. This is not a post of how to alleviate the pressure of not doing what you should. Just the opposite. It would be great if we had endless pressure from the right sources for the furtherance of the gospel. Maybe the more it hurts, the more we might trouble ourselves to obey Christ.
THE LIST: 7 SOUL WINNING PRESSURE POINTS
7 soul winning pressure points that hurt your heart. First, the list, and then below some amplification of each pressure point.
- The plain commands of Christ
- Hell
- Survivor’s guilt
- Your conscience
- The judgment seat of Christ
- Christ’s simple commendation
- Others around us who obey Christ
AMPLIFICATION AND APPLICATION
1. The plain commands of Christ.
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. —Jesus, from the Bible, Mark 16:15
Jesus Himself tells us to go. This is pressure from the right source. We should obey Christ. We should allow ourselves to feel and be propelled by this godly pressure.
So simple. So plain. We feel the pressure, don’t we? Review the truth of the severity of what Christ suffered for us.
- Laying aside His glory to come to Earth.
- Being born as a helpless baby.
- Living among sinful, wicked humans. What a contrast from the pristine Kingdom He laid aside.
- Suffering every human temptation, yet without sin.
- He was mocked, spit upon and unjustly judged.
- The utter brutality of His crucifixion. Extreme suffering that we cannot know.
- He became sin for us. Dying for us, on the cross.
- Being forsaken, for a time, from His heavenly Father.
- Retaining His human form for us…forever!
Feel the authority of Christ. Feel the pressure of His great command, his Great Commission to go and tell.
2. Hell
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. —Revelation 20:15
It is a real place. The source of this pressure is our love for others. We should not want anyone to go there.
3. Survivor’s guilt.
Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame. —1 Corinthians 15:34
You are saved. Yes, it is a blessing. It is well with your soul. But there are others who are not saved. You and I must tell about Christ.
Do you recognize the name J. Bruce Ismay? He built the RMS Titanic, was on the very voyage when it sank…and he survived. Because he found a place on a lifeboat when so many others didn’t, he had to appear before the investigation committees of both the US and of Great Brittan. His job was to explain how he got a seat on a lifeboat when so many were lost at sea.
What terrible survivor’s guilt he must have suffered knowing that he had privileged access to a lifeboat when so many others perished in the icy waters of the North Atlantic.
Over 1,500 others would have gladly taken his place on the lifeboat. Should he have done more to save the lives of others?
Here’s the thing. There is unlimited space in God’s lifeboat. There is room for everyone in Christ. What are willing to do to reach out and offer others this escape from drowning in their own sea of sin?
One final thought on survivor’s guilt. The Bible says that God will wipe away our tears in heaven. Could these possibly be tears from us not doing all we could have done to reach others with the gospel?
4. Your conscience
This is a huge part of the pressure, isn’t it? Our conscience tells us what we should do. Morality is embedded deeply in the word should. This word itself is the fuel that explodes upon our heart and causes the pressure that we call stress. My brother-in-law once wisely told me that it is not the things we do in life that cause us stress. The pain and suffering from stress is found in the things that we choose not to do.
The things in life the cause us stress are the things we should do, but fail to do.
5. The judgment seat of Christ
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ… —2 Corinthians 5:10a
Pressure for telling others about Christ should come from us wanting to fare well at the judgment seat of Christ. Of course we are all sinners. However, God has forgiven us of all our sins.
Forgiveness from sin does not excuse us from investing what God has freely given us. To whom much is given, much is also required. This has nothing to do with sin and everything to do with action. We will be judged on what we do—and what we fail to do.
We have been given:
- Life from Christ. We must invest it for Christ.
- Talents from Christ. We must use them for Christ.
- Influence. We must use it for Christ.
The list of what Christ has given us is endless, isn’t it?
In case you don’t feel the pressure, here is a little more fuel to cause your heart to feel it:
So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. —Romans 14:12
I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling it! Help me, O God, to act.
6. Christ’s simple commendation
Well done. —Matthew 25:21a
Who doesn’t want to hear this from the lips of Christ?! Why else would Christ have told the Parable of the Talents if not for us to feel the pressure of His good commendation?
Sample Commendations instead of “well done”
- Not so good. I gave you a great gifts and talents, and you did pretty much nothing for me.
- Okay. You laid around a lot and were generally lazy, but you did serve me once in a while.
You get the idea. There is no way Christ is going to give us a fake commendation. If you watched TV most of the time, I doubt He will say, “Well done.”
7. Others around us who obey Christ
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: —Hebrews 10:24
When we see others joyful in their service to Christ, it ought to encourage us to be more for Christ, amen? When we sit idly by and do nothing while someone witnesses for Christ, we feel pain. It hurts our heart…and it should. We may even think that person we are watching serve Christ has less time, less money, worse health, and less natural charisma that we possess.
The truth is, we have all we need to serve Christ. We are supplied fully to tell others about Him. The only way to alleviate the pressure, pain and stress is to obey Christ. Open your mouth, God will give you the words to say. Your heart will feel the pressure lessen immediately. The pain it used to feel turns sweetly into peace and joy when we simply yield to Christ.
Because of this, God gets the glory, someone gets the gospel, and you and I get relief from the holy pressure of telling others about Jesus Christ.
PS: Some might ask, “Is the Holy Spirit a source of pressure?” His name is the Comforter, not “the pressurer.” The feeling of pressure comes from within us when we simply do not obey.
We would be honored if you would receive our prayer letter. We need all the prayers we can get! Sign up here. Thank you, sincerely.